Daily Mail
September 29, 2008
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1064331/Catholic-priest-abused-girls-30-years-ago-jailed-victims-discovered-social-networking-website.html
A priest who sexually abused seven schoolgirls 30 years ago has been jailed after two of his victims shared memories of him on the Friends Reunited website.
Father Peter Carr - who was jailed for one year - rubbed stage-paint on to the pupils' naked bodies before school plays between 1969 and 1975.
But the 73-year-old Catholic priest was exposed after two women, now in their 40s - one a solicitor, one a singer - discussed him on the website which brings together old schoolfriends.
They made a complaint to police who found that other girls were also abused at the boys' school in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, after being invited there to join in with productions.
Judge Martin Picton at Gloucester Crown Court told Carr he had done the church 'much damage' and had left his victims feeling 'degraded and humiliated'.
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| Father Peter Carr's abuse was exposed after two women shared memories of him on the Friends Reunited website |
Father Carr, whose duties included teaching drama, was convicted of eight counts of indecently assaulting six different girls, after a trial last December.
Last week Carr, a member of the Salesian order, pleaded guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting a seventh girl, who came forward later.
The jury heard Carr put on two plays - Sinbad The Sailor and Tom Thumb - which he said required full-body make-up to be put on.
During rehearsals he smeared paint over the naked girls, sometimes when they were alone with him, although he claimed he 'only wanted to put on good show'.
One of the victims, now a 49-year-old singer and osteopath, said Carr had become a 'monster in her mind' during all that time and she had never told of the abuse.
Prosecutor Ian Dixey told the court: 'They were torn between desire to take part in productions which they enjoyed and the discomfort of having to be totally naked before a strange man.'
Judge Picton paid tribute to the courage of the women giving evidence.
He said: 'What you did to your victims all those years ago was very wrong. I hope it is of some comfort to your victims that you at last have had to admit publicly that you abused and humiliated these children out of a sexual motive.
'The humiliation they experienced came across in the impressive and measured evidence they gave. Despite what you did they did not let the fact they were victims define them but went on to live productive and successful lives.
'What you did was not minor. They have had to face life with a sense of being degraded and humiliated.
'The shows should have been the high points of their childhoods but the pleasure is for ever tainted by the abuse they suffered at your hands.'
After reports of the case appeared last week three other women have come forward making identical complaints, Mr Dixey added. But no further charges will follow because sentence would not be affected.
Carr, of London, was also made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order to prevent him working or living with children.
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